Jewish Dogs

Stow, Kenneth

doi:10.11126/stanford/9780804752817.001.0001

Cited by 24 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Stow argues that medieval Jews were 'convinced that were their children to drink this milk following Communion they would become eucharistically tainted and idolatrously infested' . 7 Stow bases his argument on the texts of Rabbi Solomon b. Isaac (Rashi) (1040-1105) and Solomon ibn Adret (ca. 1233-1310), and later the sixteenth-century Shulhan Arukh of Josef Karo (1488-1535), which in Yoreh Deah 81:7 (especially the commentary of Moses Isserles) notes that 'For the milk of idolators [including -indeed, especially for Isserles -Christians] makes the heart foolish and instils into the child a wicked disposition' .…”

Section: Prohibitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Jewish household

Aron-Beller¹

2020

Jews on Trial

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There are more Inquisitorial processi against Jews for hiring Christian servants than for any other breach of ecclesiastical regulations. It was an offence that alarmed Inquisitors, implying intimate contact between a Jewish master and a subordinate Christian behind closed doors, in the private space of a Jewish household, and as such representing an unknown level of promiscuity. When Christian servants entered Jewish households they became exposed to the Jewish family' s daily routine and the real risk of apostasy, or so the Inquisitors believed. These processi bear witness to the frequency of Christian servants working in Jewish households in this period. Although most of them worked for wealthy Jews, the practice of servant-keeping extended far down society; even poor Jews sometimes had servants and wetnurses, who occasionally stayed for long periods. At the same time, the relationship between a Christian wetnurse or servant and her Jewish master in seventeenth-century Modena constitutes an important motif for the historian. Primary issues include the alleged violations of canon law, the formal characteristics of the processi and the specific form of daily interaction within the Jewish household. Jews had to deal with the same commonplace concerns as their Christian counterparts, ensuring that their babies were sufficiently nourished with breast milk (there was no alternative at this time), that they had hot food to eat on their Sabbath and that their houses were kept clean. No evidence has yet come to light that Jewish wetnurses served in Christian households, or that the Holy Office was concerned with this issue. Although Jews hired Christian midwives as well, this issue will not be discussed since the position was transitory. What then were the duties of the Christian wetnurse or servant within the Jewish household? What was the level of contact? What can be learned about contracts between Jewish master and Christian servant? How did the padrona, the Jewish matron of the household, fit into the relationship between Jewish master and Christian servant? Interaction between Jews and Christians in the intimate, private space of a household, where others may not

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Section: Prohibitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Jewish household

Aron-Beller¹

2020

Jews on Trial

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“…92 Stow reports that in the tales told by Gonzalo de Berceo of thirteenth-century Toledo Jews persecuted Christ-like figures made out of wax and crucified them. 93 Rubbiano, for whatever reason, wanted to use the Mantua story and developed her theories into testimony. Her words probably resulted from the diffusion of popular beliefs and the persistence in her memory of this particular episode of Jewish accusation and execution.…”

Section: Judicial Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Its Latin form strepitum, as well as the verb ululare, meaning to howl like dogs, was used regularly throughout the Middle Ages to describe Jewish prayer. 97 King Henry III of England had referred to Jewish noise as ululare and strepitum in 1253, and Philip V of France used these terms in 1320 to justify his order that a local synagogue be removed 'since its noise competed with the prayer of a nearby church' . 98 Although this Jewish song and laughter was given the label strepitum in the trial proceedings, it was never proven that the noise was associated with Jewish prayer rather than Jewish disturbance.…”

Section: Jewish Noisementioning

confidence: 99%

The pingolo

Aron-Beller¹

2020

Jews on Trial

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The pingolo 1 : a locus for fantasy I have been here for 30 years and never did I hear anyone say or reflect upon the fact that Jews yelled or shouted in any way, especially at the said times, when they used to be withdrawn and modest. This year they did the worst. 2 Like many micro-histories, this chapter, which studies the tension between Jews and Christians during the frequent clash of Passover and Easter, is based on one processo in 1604, which uncovers the boisterous and intrusive actions of a group of Jews in the home of Davide de Norsa, a Jewish banker in the small town of Soliera, 9 kilometres north of Modena. Six Jewish men were charged with two offences, mocking the Passion and disturbing Christian prayer from an apartment in a castello, located within both sight and earshot of the San Giovanni Battista church. 3 Working on slippages between event and perception and thought, between thought and testimony, between testimony and narration, which allow micro-historians to see the discrepancies between what happened and what people perceived, and between what they perceived and what they said in court, an effort is made to decode and analyse the Jews' disturbance in this small town, where Jews had seemingly more freedom away from the watchful eyes of Inquisitorial authority. Up in the attic of the castello, three young Jews, cooped up by Jewish exclusion from Easter, had with innocent fun, or so it seems, vented their spirits by swinging on a pingolo, singing mountebank songs of love, playing at selling perfumed balls and generally fooling around. It brings to mind the pioneering studies of Kenneth Stow, Thomas Cohen and Elliott Horowitz, who have explored Jewish social custom and comportment in Italy in the early modern period, and reflect upon these cultural norms as a direct result of acculturation with the surrounding Christian society. 4 In his study of Roman Jewry, Stow argues that Jews often acted as if they were indeed Romans, having convinced themselves that they could act accordingly. 5 Thomas Cohen contends that a group of Roman Jews accused by the local governor of pretending to be police officers of the Campidoglio had in 1551 'turned the tables, donning the robes of power'. 6 But the

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Jews in the Middle Ages

Stow

2009

A Companion to the Medieval World

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Jewish Dogs

Cited by 24 publications

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The Jewish household

The Jewish household

The pingolo

Jews in the Middle Ages

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